Tackling public education on tap in Austin

Published 4:50 pm, Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Texans will hear ideas about improving our public schools in the coming weeks because public education always ranks as a priority issue for the Texas Legislature.

The Senate Education Committee last week reported out SB 3, legislation designed to help students who are not college-bound prepare for the workforce. The bill will come to the full Senate for debate early next month.

There’s still some work to be done on this issue, but it’s a step in the right direction. It’s important we create a career path for our high school students who will not be attending a four-year college.

SB 3 in its present form would eliminate the minimum high school diploma and require all students to choose from four new graduation plans. One would be the basic plan with no specialization. The other three paths - or “endorsements” - would be business and industry; distinguished achievement; and academic achievement in either math and science or arts and humanities.

SB 3 would require all students to complete at least 26 credits to graduate, and most students would be able to take more elective courses. The current minimum plan requires only 22 credits. Students who are not college-bound could take more electives designed to prepare them for the workforce.

It also would require high school students to earn three credits in both math and science — instead of four.

The concept is a good one. I will provide more detail and analysis after a finished product makes its way to the governor’s desk.

There are other school reform efforts under way in the Capitol dealing with charter schools and our school accountability/testing system. I will discuss those issues in more detail in a future column.

Public education has remained a dominant theme for Texans since we declared our independence from Mexico in 1836. In fact, the lack of a quality public education was listed as a major grievance against Mexico in the Texas Declaration of Independence:

“(Mexico) has failed to establish any public system of education, although possessed of almost boundless resources (the public domain), and although it is an axiom in political science, that unless a people are educated and enlightened, it is idle to expect the continuance of civil liberty, or the capacity for self-government.”

One of the more significant actions in the Capitol this past week came on the House side when lawmakers voted unanimously for a $4.8 billion supplemental appropriations bill. Basically, this resembles a Medicaid IOU. Two years ago, we were unable to fully fund the Medicaid caseload and planned all along to appropriate the money in the spring of 2013.

The House Medicaid supplemental bill will come to the Senate Finance Committee in a few days. Another important bill our Finance Committee will hear in the next two weeks is the Texas School District Security Act, which Sen. John Whitmire (D-Houston) and I have co-authored.

Some of you may have received a recent mailing falsely accusing Texas lawmakers of engineering runaway state budgets. To be blunt and generous, that mailing simply is not true. Instead of maligning us for runaway spending, we should get credit for cutting state spending.

Here are the facts: Over the past decade, state general revenue spending has been flat, in spite of tremendous population growth. Adjusted for population growth and inflation, general revenue spending has declined 8.6 percent, according to testimony John McGeady provided the Senate Finance Committee last week. John is assistant director for the Legislative Budget Board.

General revenue is the spending the Texas Legislature actually controls. The money coming from the federal government when added to our state revenue is known as “all funds” spending. The all-funds spending has averaged an 8.5 percent increase over each two-year budget cycle during the past decade, according to McGeady. But that’s not adjusted for population growth and inflation. When adjusted, the all-funds spending has declined by 0.5 percent over the past decade, the assistant LBB director told us.

The bottom line: We have made a significant cut in state spending over the past decade. However, there are groups out there, who for their own self-interest, are trying to confuse the public by linking what’s happening in Washington to Texas. Spreading misinformation is always wrong to do.

Our state Constitution prohibits the consideration of bills during the first 60 days of a session unless the governor declares them an emergency. March 6 is the 60th day, so it won’t be long before we start debating bills. I encourage everyone to come and visit your state Capitol while we are in session. It’s a completely open process, and I think you will be surprised at how accessible everyone is.

Senator Tommy Williams represents Senate District 4 covering all or portions of Montgomery, Chambers, Harris, Jefferson and Galveston counties. He serves as chairman of the Texas Senate Finance Committee and is a member of the Senate State Affairs, Open Government and Administration Committees. Call his office in The Woodlands at 281-364-9426 or Austin at 888-668-1227.